The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1887-12-31
pRorEcrED TO DEATH.
Rhode Island Manufacturers Ruined by
the Tariff Rampant for Free Trade.

Rhode Island Manufacturers Ruined by
ihe TariG-Rampant for Free Trade
A correspondent of the New York Herald
visited during the past week four Rhode Is
land mill-owners, whose property cost So
700, 900 and who have employed until recent
" 2,260 hands, on pay-rolls amounting to
$500, 600 year. The Herald says more
respondent quartet it would be impossible to
describe, for the reason that they are com
PEELED to do business at dead loss, their
property is depressed so that it would not
bring tenth of its cost, and they are reduc-
ing their hands for the simple reason that it
is no longer profitable TO utilize their skill.
Mr.. John Hazard, Jr., of the Peace Dale
Manufacturing Company, which has an In
vested capital of 100000, with several hun
dred operatives and payroll which reaches
nearly $4,000 year, said;
1--WE have for years been in favor of free
trade, but when four years ago we attempted
to urge it some of our neighbors looked
askance at us and said, ugh, no free trade. )
Now these very people are firmer advocates
of it than we are. In fact they want to go
beyond the recommendations of the Presi-
dent himself, who, rs / understand, has not
jumped all the way oyer-certainly not SO far
as some of our former skeptical friends. The
situation now is deplorable, and unless Con
gress acts decisively soon 1t may be worse.
If they are not going TO do anything we want
to know it; if they intend to take positive ac-
ton we also ought to know that, too. We
shall have no business until we know what is
to be done one way or another. People will
only buy from hand to mouth. In fact there
will be complete stagnation until the suspense
is removed.
'sThe precise situation is this We have to
nav ten cents pound duty on wool, and as
long as this lasts we are unable to produce
goods which can be sold in competition with
those made by English and German manufac-
turers. There are some kinds of worsted
goods imported on which the duty is less than
that on the wool from which we should have
to make our articles. You will see that this
is simply premium for foreign manufac-
ture.
1--WE first began to feel this pinch about
four years ago. 1t was then aggravated, of
course, by the great fall in wool on the other
side of the Atlantic The lower wool goes
there, the tariff being fixed here, the higher
is the percentage we pay on the article. We
cannot, under these circumstances, compete
with goods made abroad under free wool.
s.Of course you CAN'T expect to abolish the
tariff on wool or anything, for that matter,
without hardship to somebody. The manu-
facturers will have to stand some of it, be-
cause whatever stock of wool they may have
on hand at the time will fall in value. 1t
seems to me, though, that our oppressive duty
now involves hardships to everybody. In the
first case the loss may be SO apportioned
finally that only the few will feel it; the other
hits capital and labor alike. Hardship or no
hardship, the duty should be taken off, and
81 AFFAIRS
wherein each class of sufferers, whether en-
ployers or employees, will have an opporu-
nifty of balancing up the account.
sWhat would the result be? New life to US
all. We are whitening, so to speak, from an
overdose of paternal government. You have
heard the story of the hen who was awfully
good to her chicks during the day-scratched
| for them and warmed them and all that-but
at night she trod on them, one after another,
until the life was pretty well crushed out OF
the critters. Well, that's just what the tariff
| is doing to Rs-it is kicking the stuffing out OF
us, so TO speak. If we can get free raw ma
terial think it will, to a considerable extent,
have the effect to broaden our market. We
shall get Canadas trade, that's certain, and
we can supply very nearly the whole of our
home market. Fluctuations will not be SO
large. Now, whenever we happen to have a
surplus there is no outlet for it. Prices never
go low enough to enable us to export, and il
| they did the fluctuations would be simply
| enormous.
sour labor would certainly be better off,
because with free stuffs and even with re-
duction of tax on foreign goods we should be
able to give our help more steady employ
ment than We do now.h
''The situation, as say, is only in an aggra-
waited form what we Anticipated four years
ago. The same causes that began to operate
then are fully working now. If the condition
doesn't change we shall have to give up max
ing our line of weolen goods. The fact is
that now we are running altogether into coarse
material. We should like to indulge in the
fine goods, but the cost Of the stuff is too
high. One of the worst things that has hurt
worsted mills is that they have put less duty
on worsted goods than on material proper
tionally. This must be equalized. As an
example of the inequality of duties, take iron.
For everything imported made of this sub
stance we have to pay tremendously. | sup
pose our machinery must cost us at least 90
per cent. more than it does people abroad.
"To return to the subject of the duty on
imported goods, don't think much should be
said about that You see, if we get the relief
we seek it will come down to the question of
labor. We cannot fairly estimate, therefore,
what percentage of advantage we may re-
quire. 1t may be less or more. We have dis
covered that in good many places on the
other side they pay only about half of what
we pay here. The proportion of labor will
vary according to the fneness of the goods;
the finer they are the larger the proportion
of labor. This is because it requires more
work in finishing. 1t may very well happen
that in fine cassimeres, for instance, LESSONS
have to be remedied by hand. and it may cost
dollar yard extra for this
'Heaven knows the tariff hasn't protected
us. 1t isn't protection--it is destruction. 1t
becomes necessary to do something for us or
our machines will be stopped altogether.
Here is our half million Of capital in prop.
erty and machines. But as my nephew Ro-
land here says, what its present value is can
not be estimated, and its place in the annual
balance sheet becomes extremely problemati.
cal. The loses and cut throat competition in
the last two years are like the final straw that
broke the camel down.
Mr.. Hazard was also outspoken in regard to
bichromate of potash, which is one of the es.
sentials in wooden factories. He says what
was once a monopoly in this article has de-
voloped into a strong combination, an Amer
lean and Scotch firm, to the great injury of
the sixty wooden manufacturers.